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ORNITHOLOGIST 



[Vol. 0-Na. 12. 



plete. Marsh Hawks frequently begin to 

 set with the first egg and the young appear 

 at intervals. Both our Accipiters sit on the 

 edge of the nest or remain close at hand 

 until a good sized clutch is laid. The ear- 

 liest egg I ever knew laid was on May 15th, 

 the very first full clutch on May 23d, but 

 the time to look for complete sets is about 

 the first of June. The first clutch is almost 

 always five in number and will oftener run 

 over than under. But if the eggs are taken 

 successively as laid the normal clutch may 

 run up over a dozen — perhaps to fifteen or- 

 eighteen. If, however, the ovaries are thus 

 overtaxed in one season my experience is 

 that the forcing process will not be repeat 

 ed the following year. Of the fifteen 

 Laurel Hill eggs referred to above, eleven 

 were taken in succession from one nest 

 without a nest egg, when a new nest was 

 built and four more eggs laid. The fol- 

 lowing season, in June, I found the nest 

 with three eggs which were taken I think 

 by Crows, two pairs of which were breeding 

 in adjoining trees. Deserting nest num- 

 ber one, on account of the black neighbors, 

 her second nest, also in a hemlock, the fe- 

 male betrayed to me before finishing as 

 usual by scolding. Took two eggs and 

 substituted two Pigeon's eggs, wlien she 

 laid two more and began sitting on the Pig- 

 eon's eggs. Thus htr clutch the next year 

 after the big set was but seven. Another 

 female which gave me eighteen eggs in t88o 

 gave but seven in the year 1881. 



Through my notes of 1880, let us look a 

 little in detail at the great clutch of eigh- 

 tecTi and its environment. From the nest 

 in a pine grove four eggs were taken the 

 week ending May 23d. The next morning 

 boys Crow-hunting tore down the nest. 

 Before night a new nest resembling a Night 

 Heron's was constructed in the same grove 

 and three eggs taken the second week By 

 the middle of the third week two more eggs 

 were taken, and a Pigeon's egg substituted, 

 from which were taken successively as laid 

 nine more eggs. The early morning of ev- 

 ery alternate day was the rule for a fresh 



egg. The longest break in the series was 

 from June 2d to June 6th. The seven- 

 teenth and last egg in the direct line was 

 laid on June 21st, and when taken the nest 

 was deserted, neither bird being seen for 

 several days. On the 25th, the female ven- 

 tured back, and apparently as an after- 

 thought or a " positively the last " trial-egg, 

 laid just one more. But as this egg also 

 was taken, the Hawks in strong Billingsgate 

 said good by for the season. After paying 

 my morning respects to this nest and its 

 owners four or five times a week for more 

 than a month, it goes without saying to the 

 lover of nature that I missed the pleasant 

 routine — missed my tri-weekly egg, and 

 missed the familiar alarm of the birds who 

 would begin to scold in their clattering, 

 mowing-machine like voice when their call- 

 er was thirty rods away. The tiny male 

 was especially bold, frequently in his brave 

 dashes sweeping my face with his wings as 

 I climbed the well-worn natural ladder. 

 Disparity in size between paired Accipiters 

 is sometimes laughable, and I could cite my 

 all-summer friends of 1880 as an extreme 

 case in point. I renewed acquaintance with 

 this pair for two weeks only in i88r, in the 

 same haunts, taking seven eggs from a new 

 nest not seven feet from the ground using 

 a runt hen's egg for a persuader, 



"But," says my scientific friend, "the 

 eggs of your great clutch are of no great 

 value; they are not typical, are not normal, 

 should be undersized and with scant lymph, 

 and may have been infertile." We will de- 

 lay a moment and see what ground there is 

 for your grave charges. Your domestic 

 fowls lay you a dozen eggs or so, then 

 would cover them and hatch their broods 

 in due course; but you take their eggs 

 successively as laid and they lay all sum- 

 mer. Well, are not the added eggs typical? 

 And normal? Are they undersized or out 

 of proportion to the first part of the set, 

 and don't they produce young? Now by 

 measurement I find that my added A.ccipi- 

 lers are no smaller than the first four taken 

 and are as well colored and shaped. In- 



